Scientists calculated how much radiation “grabbed” in orbit astronauts

The torso mannequin helped them with this.

The dose of radiation exposure to which cosmonauts are exposed on the International Space Station was estimated by specialists from the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. To do this, they used data obtained over 20 years – from 2001 to 2021.

As Roscosmos told MK, measurements on the ISS were carried out using a special phantom – the Ivan Ivanovich torso dummy, as well as personal dosimeters of cosmonauts. The measurement results showed that for all the time the established standards of radiation exposure were not exceeded even once. According to them, the maximum dose for an annual expedition is 300 millisieverts.

The scientists also determined the contribution of solar, space events and exposure from the Earth’s radiation belts to the total exposure dose of astronauts. Thus, the share of solar proton events, that is, solar flares, whose plasma crossed the ISS on the way to the Earth, did not exceed 1% of the total dose per expedition in any of the 66 expeditions. As for the daily dose in undisturbed conditions (it is 0.7 millisievert), 50-60% were doses from galactic cosmic rays and 40-50% were doses from the Earth’s radiation belts.

There is a hypothesis that such a calm radiation situation, according to experts, will persist in Earth’s orbit until 2060.